Thursday, March 5, 2009

Get Ready For the Unintended Consequences

President Obama plans to pay (in part) for his "universal health care" plan by raising taxes on "the wealthy", defined as those making over $250,000 per year.

However, this will also create massive unintended consequences in the health care sector as well as in the economy at large.

Here's how one physician will respond if Obama's plan becomes law:
My wife and I are both pediatricians. We own our own practice together. We have one PA and 7 other employees. We each gross about $200 K a year. We have 3 young children at home, 2 of whom are not in school. We also employ an in-home nanny. My wife has been torn for years about not being at home for these children, which are our biggest investment in the future. We operate parallel S corporations as PC's, with a 50/50 ownership of the LLC that is our business. We file taxes jointly. After crunching some numbers concerning the President's tax hike proposals, I have come to the following conclusions. If the President's plan is enacted, we will do the following:

1. My wife will become a stay at home mother.

2. At least 3 of my 7 employees will be released.

3. The practice will downsize to a smaller office space, i.e. less rent.

4. The number of patients cared for on a daily basis will drop by 40%.

5. My wife will come out of the forced ER call schedule for good.

6. I will gross $249,999.00 a year, exactly.

7. The net income of our personal home will decrease by less than $10 K a year from where it would have been if we changed nothing.
And another physician points out:
Seeing that almost half of doctors are women, and most are married and many have children, it should be obvious that many will reduce their hours worked. And with all the problems that Obama Care will create, there WILL be a shortage of doctor hours to care for patients. So EVERYONE will EQUALLY WAIT IN LONG LINES FOR CARE.
In Massachusetts' universal system, some patients are waiting up to a year for a routine physical exam.

Is this a taste of the future for the rest of the United States?

(Both quoted segments via Bill Spears.)